Review: Six of Crows // Meet Your Favorite Criminals of Ever! <3

If you’ve been reading my posts, you may have noticed that I thought Six of Crows was over hyped and I had no interest reading it… well a couple days after I wrote that post, I went to a bookstore and Six of Crows was on sale! It was a lot cheaper than the usual price and with a cover that pretty, I just had to buy it. JOKE’S ON ME. It was SO GOOD and I can totally see what the fuss is all about. The hype is JUSTIFIED! ♦♦♦

P.S. All informations even remotely spoilery are put between spoilers tag (in case you wanna go in completely blind) and the writing is in white, which you won’t be able to see unless you block them

It was GENIUS! The smartest thing of ever, probably only aside of A Darker Shade of Magic. I’m in love with the idea of the story from the second chapter. This is about a group of criminals off to perform an impossible heist for MONEY. I mean, group quest? COUNT ME IN! I always, always love a group quest, especially the deadly ones. And this group is so full of genius and weird people!

I’m SO GLAD that there’s no noble cause, no saving the world kind of crap, they’re out there FOR THE MONEY and I love it! I’m a realist and a materialist, okay? 😛

It was gripping from the very beginning, fast paced, super intense. With the way things are going, I kept expecting for something horrible to happen, and yet when bad things actually happened, I thought to myself “Oh hey! Plot twist!”. There were a lot of shocking and brutal moments and I don’t realize since when, but I recently really enjoy brutal and stabby stories. I AM OBSESSSSEEED!

This one was indeed brutal and very twisty.

I’m not an expert on the technical aspects, but I feel like it is as much plot driven as it is character driven. Every turn of events happen because the characters decide to do so.

I’m no stranger to The Grishaverse because I read Shadow and Bone, but even then I was totally lost. It was a bit difficult to understand and my memories are vague. I feel like I understand the world much much better in Six of Crows. It was portrayed vividly and the maps are actually helpful. It’s an example of a world building done right. I definitely don’t think it’s necessary to read The Grisha trilogy first, you’ll get along just fine with this book.

&& Ketterdam was absolutely amazing. I could totally picture its harbor, its streets, its clubs and pleasure house, all the gangs operating there. It was glorious! And to think that Kaz keeps tabs on EVERYONE ♥♥

This is literally the best thing of this book. Kaz’s crew is THE BEST THING OF EVER! I’m not a fan of Shadow and Bone because I honestly hate Alina and Mal and the Darkling but this book? I love them all to bits ♥♥

Kaz Brekker

My ♥♥♥ he’s a brilliant criminal mastermind whom I just love endlessly! I love his character SO MUCH. Leigh Bardugo did a remarkable job shaping his character. He’s harsh, he’s bossy, he’s smart, he’s cautious, he (secretly) cares, and he has a really really dark past </3 my heart broke only from imagining what he had been through… no wonder he’s so traumatized </3</3 His vulnerable moments are my undoing and I LOVE HIM EVEN MORE. <spoiler>I ship him with Inej SO BADLYYYY!</spoiler> I can’t wait to see MORE tricks up his sleeves on Crooked Kingdom.

Inej

This might sound strange but I always love a girl from a pleasure house. They’re gorgeous BUT ALSO cunning has so many tricks up their sleeves. Including Inej the Wraith. She’s so stealthy and smart but honestly… a bit plain, especially compared to Nina. She’s also selfish when it comes to Kaz! <spoiler>I mean, really, Kaz is literally the only person who’s been protecting her all along. Sure, she also has Kaz’s back, but why did she act like Kaz owes her something? Clearly they are both into each other and I think Inej wasn’t being fair to Kaz. And the whole “Armor off or we’re off” ultimatum is honestly ANNOYING! Kaz has trauma </3 I still shipped them though….</spoiler>

Nina Zenik

MY FAVORITE CHARACTER OF EVER ♥ She’s Grisha, she’s pretty, she’s cunning and sassy, and she cares about other people I can’t even…. :’) She also loves FOOD and eats literally every time! Hello, relatable character! 😛 Every conversation that includes her is just naturally funny and I couldn’t help but laughing. Her relationship with <spoiler>Matthias is THE WINNER of all I ship them very very very HARD! I’m very keen on starcrossed lover </3</spoiler> She’s also so brave and honorable and I seriously can’t wait to see how things turn out for her on book 2.

Matthias Helvar

I just love him, okay? He’s brutal and honorable and loyal but a fooool in love! His naivety with his Gods and sacred duty made him all the more interesting! I really enjoyed his character and his development is probably the greatest of all ♦ <spoiler>his love for Nina though </3</3</spoiler>

Wylan Van Eck

Wylan is the baby in the crew and he’s just sooo adorable! ♥ His lack of experience with thievery made people think less of him but he’s actually super talented! He makes explosives and super smart and play flutes. It’s actually a bit sad for me to find out the truth about him and his dad but that’s a really precious turning point of his life. I’m sure he’ll get more spotlight in Crooked Kingdom!

Jesper

Jesper is fun and snarky and <spoiler>A GRISHA??</spoiler> but he’s my LEAST favorite of all the crew! I don’t know how that happened but I just couldn’t really connect with him. I wanted so bad to skim through his point of view </3 but I didn’t, obviously, this story is too precious to be skipped on! He also reminds me of Jalal from The Wrath and the Dawn.

Basically, I LOVE EVERYONE! Everyone is genius and special and has their own realistic back stories. Their interactions are also dynamic and not to mention SUPER FUN. Sass at its best! Although… WHY ISN’T JOOST IN THE STORY? He’s on the first chapter and I thought he’ll be part of the crew, being the most innocent one while busy trying to grow his mustache 😦

Oh boyyyy the writing is so flowy and elegant and vivid and NOT BORING AT ALL! It was engaging and extremely addictive. Though I feel like there are wayyy too many point of views and some of it are less interesting than the others. Like I said, I wanted to skip Jesper’s POV, but I get that it was necessary. The group split so much and a single POV won’t cover everything, but still.

Some things are also less exciting, like Inej’s inner monologue with her lost parent or her God, while I personally feel like we could spend better time talking about Kaz! It got tedious sometimes, but I love it anyway ♥

All in all, it’s a solid 5-stars from me. SO SO SO GOOD! ♥ I can’t wait for Crooked Kingdom to see more epicness! 😛 and to anyone of you who doesn’t like The Grisha Trilogy and in doubt if you should read this book or not, I’ll tell you something : this book is a whole other level of The Grisha Trilogy. SO. MUCH. BETTER! Quit doubting and start reading! 😛

Have you read Six of Crows? I’d love to hear your thoughts ♥ Drop some comments and let me know what you think 😀 aaand let’s fangirl together over Kaz and Matthias! ♥♥♥

Yay, I’m glad to see you enjoyed this one! Six of Crows is one of my favorites and I can’t wait for Crooked Kingdom. Inej is my favorite, but I love every one of the six characters so so much. This series has one of the best band of characters for me. Great review!

Me toooo OMG I’m glad I JUST read it now, the wait is only a month so it’s pretty bearable for me hahaha yes absolutely, this could be another one of my squad goals, if only they’re less brutal hahaha 😛 I took the Six of Crows character quiz on Grishaverse and apparently I’m Inej! 😀 (I was hoping to be Nina, but YAY!) Thank you 🙂

Great review! I still haven’t read any Leigh Bardugo, but I looove ADSOM and seeing you mention it is like a lightbulb moment for me. I enjoy fast-paced, intense books too so I might end up picking this up eventually… well, after I read Shadow and Bone, which I haven’t as well. Oops. D:

Thank you! 😀 it’s not as fast paced as ADSOM but the plot is as smart and carefully planned ❤ That seems like a long way to go hahaha but I hope you enjoy Shadow and Bone! and if u don't I still recommend you give Six of Crows a shot because it is sooo much better! 😛

I actually think ADSOM is already quiiiite slow-paced, especially at the beginning, so I worry if this one will be even slower!

Yeah, part of the reason why I haven’t bothered picking up this series is because I’m not at all acquainted with the Grisha trilogy… so many books to read just to ‘prep’ myself, it feels. But it’s good to know that SoC is better. 😛

Actually, I was just thinking the same thing when I was reading And I Darken… ADSOM is slooowww at first but it kinda picked up pace, right? SoC is steadier and there are a lot of brutal moments so even if it’s a bit slow, it’s not dull at all 😁

Yes, I’ve heard that too! I hope it will stay duology though bc it seems like books are getting more unplanned sequels with time, and there are so many books on my tbr already, new sequels make it even harder to keep up! xD

I was so hesitant to read this one because the only other high fantasy book I was ever able to get through was The Hobbit (and I already knew everything about that world, so none of it was confusing), and for the first 60 pages or so of this book, I was so frustrated that I wanted to cry. But once everything started coming together, it was just… aaahhhh ❤ I loved EVERYTHING about it soooo much I want to marry it. I loved Inej, Nina, and Matthias the most, and even though I don't like Kaz all that much, I really appreciated his character and loved his back story. It went so in depth of all the characters, and the world, and just… ah. It was sooo good. All the stuff about how the Grishas are treated by people from different countries and stuff was just so well done and I have no coherent words apparently. I can't wait for Crooked Kingdom.

Yayyyyy I’m happy for you! ❤ I had no problem with the world building because I read Shadow and Bone, there for I was already familiar with The Grishaverse but it's so good that you could eventually grasp the whole concept! 😀 and YESSSS I absolutely agree the characters are so precious and strangely adorable 😛 Me either OMGGGG I can't wait for CK but I'm also sad it's gonna end soon :')